The LHC: Citius, Altius, Fortius…

James Gillies, Head, communication group, CERN

27 November 2006

News from CERNNews from CERN

James GilliesJames Gillies

EPPOG 29 May 2007, LisbonEPPOG 29 May 2007, Lisbon

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Monster Black Hole devours LHC magnet!

John Ellis becomes DG of CERN!

“The part was destroyed and subsequently compressed into a singularity by the black hole that the device created.” Slashdot 31 March 2007

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But seriously…

“The superconducting magnets themselves are in a pressure vessel (called the cold mass) that will eventually be cooled to 1.9 K for operation. These cold masses are suspended inside a cryostat (a vacuum vessel) so that they can be isolated from the heat that would otherwise make it impossible to cool the magnet. The suspension is made of a composite glass/epoxy material to minimize the heat flow from the outside of the vessel into the magnet.

Because of the geometry and the connections between magnets in the inner triplet, there is an unbalanced longitudinal force on the cold mass when the cold mass is pressurized. This force is transmitted from the cold mass to the the cryostat through the composite suspensions. The design of the suspensions is inadequate to withstand those forces, and at 20 atmospheres, they broke. The pressure test would have been successful if the pressure had gotten to 25 atm.”

… Peter Limon

The Public

“I think it’s fantastic. Why wouldn’t we want to know where we’ve come from and why we’re here?”

• Sector 7-8 reached 1.9K

• Last magnet in the tunnel

• Interconnections ahead of schedule

• Schedule review for June Council

LHC start-up preparations…

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LHC start-up

“The engineering run at the end of this year was extremely tight due to accumulated delays. The inner triplet problem now makes it impossible. We are now working to maintain the startup for the beginning of April 2008, as always foreseen, and will commission the machine to full energy in one go.”

Lyn Evans, 21 May 2007

MethodologyAre LHC collisions safe?

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Has the experiment been done by nature?

New material on public web page.

LHC safety advisory group revising CERN yellow report

What are we doing about it?

MethodologyThe LHC start-up

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How do we reconcile media desire for red button start with reality?

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The European Strategy for Particle Physics

Complimentary issues:15. Fundamental physics impacts both scientific and philosophical thinking, influencing the way we perceive the universe and our role in it. It is an integral part of particle physics research to share the wonders of our discoveries with the public and the youth in particular. Outreach should be implemented with adequate resources from the start of any major project; Council will establish a network of closely cooperating professional communication officers from each Member state, which would incorporate existing activities, propose, implement and monitor a European particle physics communication and education strategy, and report on a regular basis to Council.

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Letter to Council…

Following Council's unanimous approval of the document CERN/2713, 'European Particle Physics Communication', the CERN communication group would like to convene a meeting of the new European particle physics communication network on 11 June 2007. The meeting would have the objective of examining in detail CERN's LHC communication plan, outlined in the appendix to CERN/2713, and putting in place concrete and costed collaborative measures between the network members for each of the plan's major objectives.

CERN/2713 requests Member States to nominate professional communicators as members to the network. I am enclosing a list of those already in contact with the CERN communication group. Where a network member exists, I would be grateful if you could confirm the nomination or nominate an alternative. Where no member exists, I would be grateful if you could provide a nomination.

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Network members

Austria Be lgium Bulgar ia Czech Repub lic Den mark Finland Minna Merila inen, He ls inki Univers ity Franc e Perr ine Royo le-Deg ieu x, IN2P3 Ger many Thomas Nau mann, DESY Greece Nick Tracas, NTUA Hungary Italy Nether lands Gabby Z egers, NIKHEF Norway Ingvil Bjornaes, Re search Counc il Po land Stan is law Latek, Nat iona l Atomic Ene rgy Agency Portuga l Pedro Abreu , LIP Slovak ia Spa in Sweden Ca milla Jacobsso n, Vettensk apsrad et Switzer land United Kingdo m Pet er Barra tt, STFC

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LHC communication plan…

Likely to be funded to CHF480k over two years.

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Draft agenda for meeting…

1) Welcome - Maximilian Metzger2) Objectives of the meeting - James Gillies3) Presentations from Member States4) Media work - James Gillies4.1) Arranging media visits to CERN4.2) Start-up plans4.3) Working together to maximize impact (BBC TV and radio as case study)5) Corporate communication - Christine Sutton5.1) Core publications5.2) VIP launch publication5.3) Web matters5.4) Multimedia matters6) Public outreach - Bernard Pellequer6.1) Exhibitions: sharing experience from Globe, catalysing exhibitions in MS6.2) Open day: working to ensure that MS well represented6.3) Visits: preparing people for a visit to CERN

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Good coverage for particle physics

If want to go on living in this great big universe, we’d better understand it better

Generally more interest from outside the science ghetto - Dr Who, Andrew Marr, Stephen Fry, Black Eyed Peas, MTV…

Science (in) fiction…

Astroparticle European Research Area Network…